Yom HaShoah 2023 series - 1

Even anti-Semites love dead Jews

Andrzej Koraszewski

Cross-posted from REUNION 69 https://dzismis.com/2021/09/07/nawet-antysemici-kochaja-martwych-zydow/

A friend informs me that he stops writing because everyone writes and so few read, so it may be better to join the ranks of readers. The reader informs me that he does not understand why I write, after all, no one reads my scribbling, because no one is interested (which, of course, is reminiscent of the story of the Cretan claiming that all Cretans lie. This reader reads carefully, although it annoys him very much.)

A friend, a former Muslim, claims in the title of her latest article that Israel is the best thing that could happen to Muslims. I was curious how it would develop, because for most readers this title is a provocation at best. The author writes that the dogma of contemporary political criticism is that the creation of Israel took place at the expense of Arab Muslims, that we constantly hear shouts about the apartheid state, about colonialists, about discrimination against Palestinians, about the genocide of Palestinians and the killing of young Palestinian children.

“For most, standing alone against this multitude of lies is a frightening prospect,” writes Anjuli Pandavar, adding, “If you had the inner strength to stand up to the lies they told you about Islam, then you have the strength to stand up to the lies told about Israel.” Opposing lies and the inhumane acts associated with them carries various risks. Sometimes it is just disregard and some disgusting letters, sometimes a threat to life, and sometimes a threat not only to one's own life, but also to the lives of loved ones. Admitting out loud that you no longer believe in Allah can end in death, sometimes at the hands of your own parents. Reading about it in Poland distances such a story and makes it almost unbelievable. Challenging heroism, opposing inhuman ideas and inhuman deeds also happened much more closely. I'm reading a story on Facebook that I didn't know of.

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a village in France, located near the border with Switzerland. During the war, the village had about five thousand inhabitants who saved more than five thousand Jews. It is inhabited mainly by Protestants, descendants of Huguenots. When the deportations of French Jews began, the local pastor André Trocmé and his wife called on the faithful to help “people of the book”. The local population not only cherishes the memory of the persecution of the Huguenots by Catholics, after 400 years they still cherished mountain hideouts and tunnels allowing them to get to the Swiss side (because you never know). The inhabitants showed extreme solidarity, but the municipal authorities demanded that the pastor stop helping the Jews, because it endangered the whole village. The pastor replied that he did not know what Jews were, that he only knew people. There was also an informer, but the searches did not bring any result. The pastor was arrested, but the local people thought they had to continue to be human. This story was recalled because the last of those saved by the inhabitants of this village died recently. Today in Poland, opposing a lie does not threaten life or denunciation to the Gestapo, it threatens the grimace of some acquaintances and stronger reactions of strangers.

But back to the question, why does a former Muslim woman think Israel is the best thing that could have happened to Arabs? “The United Nations' Human Development Reports have for many years shown tragically low levels of education, health care, quality of life and life expectancy in Muslim countries,” writes Anjuli Pandavar, but these reports carefully avoid talking about the reasons for this phenomenon. In today's world, this fearful respect for Islam is an existential threat to the rest of the world. The correlation between Islam and poverty is particularly striking in the case of “Palestinians.” It is enough to collect data in one place and indicate what it shows.

The data leave no doubt that Israeli Arabs are wealthier, better educated, healthier and have more political freedoms than Arabs in any Arab country. Are they aware of this? When, at the end of Trump’s presidency, the possibility of Israel annexing parts of Judea and Samaria and handing over several Arab cities in Israel to the Palestinian Authority was rumoured, the reactions of the inhabitants of these cities left no doubt. There were no people willing to live under the rule of their Palestinian compatriots. At the same time, the data show an increase in the radicalism of Israeli Arabs. In the 70s, half of Israeli Arabs questioned Israel’s right to exist, by the turn of the century, it had increased two-thirds, and today this view is expressed by four-fifths of Israeli Arabs.

The propaganda of Arab leaders carried out since the ’20s of the last century has been effective. As it turns out, a better life does not outweigh the joy of hate, but looking at some other Arab countries, there is an awareness that religious fanaticism is killing their chances of development. It is not the Palestinians, but Israel that is showing the way to other Arabs. It is not Israel that is unacceptable, but Islam, which is contrary to humanity and civilisation, writes the ex-Muslim.

I’m afraid Anjuli hopes too much that reason will prevail over the joy of hating. A book by American writer Dara Horn has just been published about a world that teaches only about dead Jews. This is a collection of her essays about the world in which an employee of the Anne Frank museum is asked not to wear a kippah to work, because it might offend the feelings of visitors.

The author writes that she confused interest in the tragedy of Jews in the past with respect for the living. However, Jews are still a canary in the mine, the level of anti-Semitism in the US is constantly increasing, the preservation of Holocaust memory and care for cemeteries do not prevent hatred and the cultivation of eternal hatred.

Reading an interview with this American author, I am aware of an episode from modern history, recently recalled by another American author, when twenty years ago, after the attacks on the WTC, the President of the United States, declaring a global fight against terrorism, consciously and deliberately excluded terrorist attacks on Jews. Including terrorism against Jews in this global fight against terrorism would complicate life, could discourage potential Muslim allies, and spoil the struggle for peace and human rights. This exclusion of terrorism against Jews from the global counterterrorism agenda was accompanied by ritual assurances of friendship, alliance, and the need to ensure Israel’s security, but people cannot be deprived of the right to kill Jews.

Repeating lies about Israel does not interfere at all with the celebration of the memory of dead Jews; on the contrary, bombastic ceremonies serve very well to obscure real actions. The willingness to believe every lie about the descendants of those who were murdered not only continues unabated, it grows every day, reinforcing a strong conviction of one's own unceasing goodness and nobility.

Israel is the best thing that could happen to Jews, which does not mean that the commemoration of the murdered will not be organised more and more often in the world by supporters of the slogan "From the river to the sea..." eagerly donating our tax money to reward terrorism against Jews.

Editorial comment: Of course, who would not immediately recall Mansour Abbas’s confidence trick before the assembled Knesset on Yom HaShoah 2020, and Jews from there to cyberspace gushing their relief that finally, an Arab had said something they so badly want to hear? He said the right thing. Never mind what he might actually be up to.

The reader will appreciate that the views expressed by Andrzej are not necessarily my own.